The present invention relates generally to apparatus for applying a massaging effect to the body of a user and, more particularly, to dry hydro-therapy body massage apparatus utilizing a fluid spray arrangement for massage effect.
Massage is a time-honored and generally effective therapy for muscular injuries, strains and general soreness but, although massage is still recommended by many physicians for such purposes, this therapy has severely limited availability due to a scarcity of trained, qualified masseurs. As a result, many devices and apparatus have been proposed in the past for producing a massage-like manipulation of a user's body by various means, ranging from mechanically or electrically-generated vibrations or pulsations, usually accompanied by heating, to pulsations of pressurized water, applied either is a wet environment such as partially submerging the user's body in a bath device or in a dry environment wherein a fluid spray arrangement is housed in a fluid-tight bed or chair type structure for applying a massaging effect to the user's body without requiring the user to disrobe.
Representative examples of the latter form of apparatus, often commonly referred to as dry hydro-therapy massage, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,635,620; 4,751,919; 4,757,808; 4,908,016; 4,976,256; 5,074,286; 5,713,834; 5,827,206; and 6,036,663. Such apparatus have met with moderate success, and efforts continue within the relevant industry to expand their acceptance, availability and usefulness.
The majority of such known hydro-therapy massage apparatus are in the form of a bed-type structure having an essentially horizontal user support surface on which the user may lay in a recumbent position. Advantageously, the horizontally recumbent position of the user's body in such bed type structures enables the massaging fluid spray to be applied via a manifold device arranged for lengthwise travel within the interior of the apparatus in an essentially linear path of travel alongside the body of a user, allowing the entire length or any portion of the user's body to be treated by the hydro-therapy massage.
On the other hand, one of the perceived disadvantages of a bed-type dry hydro-therapy apparatus is that the recumbent disposition of the user is not conducive to enabling the user to engage in other activities during the operation of the apparatus, e.g., reading, watching television, operation of a laptop computer or other personal electronic device, etc. For such reasons, a desire has been expressed in the industry for a dry hydro-therapy massage apparatus wherein the user may rest in a generally seated disposition during operation of the apparatus, allowing the user to read a book or magazine, watch television, and remain otherwise occupied with other activities.
One apparatus to address this need is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,206, which discloses a chair for performing dry hydro-massage on a user in a seated position. While this chair apparatus has met with a reasonable degree of success, a limitation of the apparatus is that a linearly traveling spray manifold arrangement as used in bed-type apparatus is not adaptable to accommodate massaging of the relative angular disposition of the user's upper body and lower body when in a seated position on the apparatus. Instead, this apparatus utilizes a series of fixed spray heads or jets arranged to massage only the upper body of the user. Thus, the apparatus is not capable of performing a full length body massage on a seated user.